Bariatrics is typically defined as the branch of medicine concerned with the management of obesity and allied diseases. When working with patients in need of bariatric services and procedures, it has been found necessary to deal with persons weighing up to and exceeding one thousand pounds. Accordingly, it has become necessary to develop beds, stretchers, chairs, and/or tables capable of supporting the weight of persons weighing up to and exceeding one thousand pounds.
When dealing with patients of an elevated weight, it has been found that hospital beds for use with bariatric patients may be advantageously equipped with a drive system to aid a health care professional in easily transporting the bariatric patient from one location to another. Such drive systems may consist of a pair of wheels being driven in unison by one or more actuators. Subsequently, bariatric beds having the dual drive wheel system cannot be manually maneuvered effectively. The weight of the bariatric bed while carrying a patient makes manual steering adjustments increasingly difficult to perform when both drive wheels are engaged with a floor surface. Because a health care professional cannot easily turn the bariatric bed manually, often times additional components must be added to allow for motorized steering of the dual-wheel drive systems. This often results not only in added complexity and cost in manufacturing such dual-drive wheel systems, but it also requires that the dual-wheel drive system have advanced controls such as a multi-axis joystick, adding even more complexity and cost to the system.
Furthermore, many existing bariatric beds also feature a patient trapeze that extends up and over a surface of the bariatric bed supporting the patient to aid in lifting or repositioning the patient. These patient trapeze devices often consist of a pole originating from multiple supports that are adjacent and extend above a headboard of the bariatric bed. The position of the bed's headboard relative to the patient trapeze may limit access to the patient from a direction outside of and adjacent the headboard. Furthermore, the multiple supports for the patient trapeze present an additional obstacle for a healthcare professional attempting to gain access to the patient from behind the headboard.
It would therefore be desirable to produce a patient bed having a drive system capable of transporting the bariatric bed in a manner having increased maneuverability. It would also be desirable to produce a bariatric bed having a patient trapeze that does not limit access to the patient from a direction adjacent an outside surface of the headboard of the bariatric bed.